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November 15, 2010

Trying to emerge from a whirlwind weekend of travel and meetings. What do they say? It's not the years, it's the mileage. That sounds right. :)

I drove to Washington, DC on Thursday after work and arrived at my hotel near the Pentagon in the early evening. I checked in, and managed to squeeze the car (bike racks and all) into the parking deck. When I say squeeze, I mean SQUEEZE. Maybe 1/32" to spare. I had quite the crowd of porters and valets watching as I drove in. The concrete wasn't too scary, but all the low hanging water pipes had my attention as I traveled down two levels to find a spot.

A little before 21:00 my freind Pete came by and we headed out to grab something to eat. Pete is more like a brother to me, and a family member to the rest of my relatives. Funny how it can be years since we last saw each other, but things generally remain the same. It's pretty cool.

Got back to my hotel late, and tried to get some sleep. By far one of the worst 3 nights sleep I have ever had. Nothing particular, but I just could not fall asleep. Managed to nap for about 2 hours (maybe) but was up and rolling before 6am (which, if you know me, never, ever, never, ever happens).

Walked about two blocks and grabbed an espresso, went back to the hotel to pack and checkout, and then grabbed some items and rolled out in 40 degree temps on the fixie. (I almost hit my head on the roof and the pipes of the parking deck on the way out). I thought the bike and the Metro gave me the best options for city travel, so the car stayed in the deck all day.

In between communting to scheduled meetings, I managed to grab about 2 hours worth of cycling. I really enjoy cycling as a great way to explore cities as being in the saddle provides a great opurtunity to sample the local flavor.

I had a good meeting with the American Diabetes Association at their Alexandria office. It was cool to be there as I have heard so much about it from Dr. Buse and while working with the local ADA chapter over the years.

And, yes, I DID ride my bike down there. Might have been the first person to walk the halls of the ADA wearing a Chrome Bag and a helmet. What else would you expect? (Rhetorical question Nancy E.) :)

I left DC later on that afternoon, and headed straight up to Red Bank NJ for the next phase of the weekend.

As a side note, the EZ-Pass my mom lent me to save "time" goinf through the tolls in MD, DE, and NJ didn't work. So, although it cut down on my wait time in toll traffic, I am should be expecting $100s of dollars of running the toll fines to be mailed my way soon. Funny. Not funny 'HA HA', but funny.

I have a good and productive time in NJ meeting with Melissa Ballan. Melissa has an 8 y.o. would was diagnosed with Type 1 last year, and, after many conversations over the months on FB and the phone, we deceided to work together on some upcoming projects. More on those specific details later, but we did spent a ton of time working discussing details.

Left NJ on Saturday afternoon and, safe for one stop in MD for gas, drove straight throught to home.

Of course all this travel left me under the weather and exhausted today. I have a busy week, and am really, really excited about getting back into structured training sometime next week. Man, I am really starting to miss the bike after the 3 weeks of not riding it everyday. :)